december finish! have yourself a quilty little christmas

Yay! I've finished piecing Have Yourself A Quilty Little Christmas! Now I really want to take it off of my design wall and have it quilted! 

The stocking and wrapped candy just might be my favorite block. I spent awhile auditioning fabrics. The pink candy fabrics were easy. But the stocking has several seams so I stayed away from large prints. That meant pulling every single red fabric out of my closet. And then putting them all away. I love the dimensional hanging loop.

Now can we talk about the border? It took days to piece! It's made of four-patches mixed with alternating squares. The four patches measure 2" finished. It's constructed in a really interesting way - I didn't actually sew 1 1/2" squares. It started with a large pile of small squares...

And a few days later, four borders were finished and attached! I love this border with scrappy, controlled fabrics and 360 pieces. 

Now for the specifics. Have Yourself A Quilty Little Christmas was an online quilt along designed by Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet. It measures 34" x 46". Many of the block patterns are in her book Quilty Fun. The specific Christmas-themed blocks were designed just for this quilt along, and the instructions for those blocks were posted by Lori on Instagram. They do not appear in a print version. You can find the free instructions for the tree, present, gingerbread cookie, stocking and ornament by checking Lori's feed on Instagram (it's @beelori1) or by scrolling through #haveyourselfaquiltylittlechristmas. It was fun sewing along with many, many other quilters. We all encouraged each other, and I think that it became competitive, but in a fun way. There are lots of different interpretations of this quilt, and they all look fabulous.

My fabrics are a big mishmash of everything in my stash! The only new fabric that I bought was a fat quarter bundle of Sugar Rush by Josephine Kimberling for Blend Fabrics. I used just six of those prints, but they established the mood. So there's plenty of everything else from my stash. I added anything that matched! 

Ok, I'm ready for my next project!

have yourself a quilty little christmas

I've joined the "Have Yourself A Quilty Little Christmas" sew along!

Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet is hosting the sew along on Instagram. It's a fun way to use the Quilty Fun book to make some cute, quick blocks for Christmas. This might surprise you, but I had exactly ZERO Christmas themed fabrics in my stash! I quickly ordered a bundle of Sugar Rush fat quarters. I don't normally use novelty fabrics, but I'm breaking free of that and I'll have a retro/vintage/kitschy Christmas!

That's my little gingerbread house! I love the easy simplicity of making just one of each block. The fabric placement is the best part. I'm mixing nearly anything in my fabric stash with the Sugar Rush fabric - Bunny Hill's Winter Wonderland, Lori Holt's Flower Patch, Bonnie & Camille's Miss Kate, Pam Kitty Picnic... anything that works together. No rules!

Lori even created a special Christmas tree block that isn't featured in the book. I just had to use the blue and green swirly peppermints here!

Many of us are sewing along with Lori, with absolutely no idea how many blocks we'll sew or how large the finished project will be. That's a lot of trust, but it's been fun so far! And you can join us! Specific block info can be found on Instagram by following @beelori1 and under #haveyourselfaquiltylittlechristmas. While you're there, be sure to see what I'm up to by following me at @greydogwoodstudio. 

quilty fun birthday party!

Happy First Birthday, Quilty Fun! Welcome to my stop on the birthday blog hop! 

Quilty Fun by Lori Holt has quickly become my go-to book for fun, scrappy patchwork designs. Seriously, I would like to make everything in this book! The book contains clear, easy-to-understand diagrams for creating the row quilt shown on the cover, plus ten additional projects ranging from pillows to runners to quilts, all using rotary cutting with no templates. 

To help celebrate the first birthday, Lori Holt has created a special, fun birthday cake block!

Mmmm chocolate layer cake. My favorite! I was so excited to print out the free pdf of this pattern's cutting instructions, and I immediately started sewing my birthday cake. But I liked it so much that I needed another piece of cake. How about a red velvet cake?

And because I have so many favorite cake flavors I just kept going! Anybody want a piece of strawberry cream cake?

Before I knew it, this happened. Twelve cakes with rainbow sprinkles sashing!

Who wouldn't love a fancy cake for Valentine's Day?

Or maybe a pretty birthday cake with fanciful buttercream rosettes?

Could I tempt you with a slice of chocolate mud cake?

Seriously, you are going to LOVE making these cakes. One would be cute as a pillow. Three would make a great birthday table runner. Or go crazy like I did and make twelve (or more)! Download the FREE copy of the Quilty Fun birthday cake pdf pattern here. You can also view all twelve of my birthday cake blocks on my Flickr page.

But don't leave yet because the birthday party is just getting started! Here are some of the amazingly fantabulous patterns in Lori's book. There's the full row along quilt that I made last year.

I loved making the Snowball Fight table runner. I really need to have this quilted before Christmas!

And the Quilty Fun book also has directions for Lori's signature bee pattern. Here I've reduced the size of the bee and made a quartet of them!

I do hope that you'll help me in celebrating Quilty Fun's first birthday. Pour yourself a nice hot (or cold!) drink, download the birthday cake pattern and start stitching!

Thanks for stopping by today. Be sure to visit the Fat Quarter Shop for a copy of the Quilty Fun book. Their blog will also have links to all the other bloggers participating in the hop. And drop by to see what Lori is working on here. I'll see you soon!

building houses with quilty fun

It's week fourteen of the Quilty Fun sew along! And this week's assignment was to build neighborhood houses. Or as I like to call them, little pink houses for you and me.

John Cougar Mellencamp's classic "Pink Houses" song was stuck on repeat (in my head) while I built my houses. The lyrics are kinda bleak, but never mind... it's all about the pink house!

Pink and green is my most favoritest color combination ever! I often combine pink and green in my blocks. Even my blog got the pink and green treatment, plus grey, of course!

I built a little blue and plaid house, too!  There aren't any blue houses in my neighborhood (nope, none... I looked), but I wanted a nice contrast to the pink and green house. Wouldn't it be fun to live in a blue polka dotted house?

These blocks were sooo easy to sew. I didn't need to worry about the chimneys lining up with the angles of the roof like they do on so many other house blocks. 

Lori posted instructions on how to join the left side blocks together, and so that means that I'll be back in a few days with an update!

Be sure to check out what the other Quilty Fun quilters are up to on the Flickr page here. 

falling leaves with quilty fun

It's week 13 of the Quilty Fun sew along! And this week we made falling leaves. These are bright and happy, like budding spring leaves.  

It took me just a few minutes to prep the fabric for these leaves. I had a few precut 1 1/2" strips of Pam Kitty Morning fabric that were left over from another project. Perfect!

You'll see that I am a BIG pinner. It takes me a little bit more time but helps to ensure that my blocks finish nice and flat. I often use up that whole tin of pins on just one border strip.

Normally, I like to use colors similar to nature when making blocks like flowers, trees and hearts. I like pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, green clovers and blue diamonds.

Does that sound familiar? Yes, I quoted the Lucky Charms cereal commercial!  I just got over a cold, and Lucky Charms is my favorite comfort food that I eat ONLY when I'm sick. I ate the whole box... in two days. And I can't sing the theme song when I have a sore throat. But I'm better now, so obviously the cereal IS magically delicious!

Anyway, sometimes I let myself be creative with color, and I just had to make a blue leaf!

These little leaves were so fast to make! See what everybody else is working on at the Quilty Fun Flickr group here. We have 7 weeks left, so there's still time to join us!

the groundhog saw... tulips!

Still sewing along with Lori Holt's Quilty Fun Sew Along! 

Never mind that grouchy groundhog. This week's spring tulips have me absolutely convinced that Spring is almost here!

I should probably admit that I spent a full week considering which Pam Kitty Morning fabrics to use for the tulips. First I pulled little dots, then plaids. But I REALLY wanted to try the stripes. And I am so glad that I did. The stripey tulip reminds me of those fun parrot tulips that I love. And I'd plant my own if I had a yard!

I used a big pink dot to balance the wide stripes. 

I can totally imagine a whole quilt full of these tulips. Kinda like my great grandmother's flower beds. And there's even a pattern for a quilt packed with tulips in the Quilty Fun book!

Next week we'll make falling leaves. What, falling leaves in February?! Well, mine will be bright and happy. 

See you soon!

row, row, row along... done!

The Bee In My Bonnet Row Along quilt is done!

And freshly out of the dryer! All squishy and crinkly!

This quilt has all of my favorite traditional motifs. Like multicolored apples and crazy flying geese.

Happy houses, bright tulips, baskets and butterflies.

I had a major overdose of Flower Sugar here!  Plus the Pam Kitty Morning dotty backing. I still have yards of those dots in my stash - I can never have too many dots! And I love the cross hatched quilting done by Melissa Hoffman.

There's even a bee label! A big thank you to Lori Holt for providing free patterns for us each week and ultra-clear tutorials. All of these patterns have been compiled into an amazing new book called Quilty Fun. 

Have you seen the latest Quilty Fun Sew Along? We're only halfway through, so there's still time to join us! Get the scoop here.

Thanks for visiting! This is my first link-up with Finish It Up Fridays, sponsored by Crazy Mom Quilts. I need to go check out all the other blogs!

honeycombing with quilty fun

It's time to make honeycombs with this week's Quilty Fun Sew Along!

I look forward to Monday mornings to see what Lori and her team have in store for us. And this week was honeycombs! I like how Lori has renamed the classic snowball block. Because we need a break from snow right now, right? Time to dig through my stash of Pam Kitty Morning fabric.

How about some medium prints?

Yay! A chance to use my larger prints!

And I gotta have my dots and spots!

Then just 92 easy-corner-triangles later, and I have 23 honeycombs!

And here are this week's blocks all together! 

We're just over halfway through the Sew Along, but it isn't too late to join us! Have you seen some of the great blocks that other quilters are putting together? There are some amazing things at the Flickr group here.

Next week's blocks are tulips. I might just cheat a little bit and start to pick out my fabrics now...

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

four patching with quilty fun!

Yep, it's week 10 of the Quilty Fun sew along! It's also the debut of my blog! That's right, today is Day One of my quilt blog journey. You can learn ALL about me here.

So you all know about Lori Holt's amazing book, Quilty Fun, right?

To say that I love this book would be an understatement. I've already participated in Lori's Great Granny Quilt Along, the Bee In My Bonnet Row Along, and then the Quilty Barn Along.  So of course I was going to be a part of the Quilty Fun Sew Along! 

This week's project was to make three strips of postage stamps. Or, ok, Lori calls them four patches. Let's just agree that they are tiny and cute, ok? And luckily, Lori has an ingenious way of constructing these so that you don't need to fuss with tiny squares. How clever!

I'm again using fabric from Miss Pam Kitty Morning! I love her collections. Seriously, her fabric makes me happy, like sprinkles on a cupcake. And I'm a bit obsessed with cupcakes. And so, I've got a huge stash of all three of her collections. This time I'm pushing myself to include some black in each week's blocks.

These companion sheets from the Fat Quarter Shop are super helpful.

Ah, three rows of little postage stamps! Or, if you prefer, four patches!

Well, my first post wasn't so scary after all. Thanks so much for stopping by! And a special, big THANK YOU to my friends and family for their encouragement. Come back in a few days... I'll have more. Really!